[govie]

Hello guys & girls,

I am going to buy a dayton audio EMM-6 microphone so that I can measure woofers, tweeters & assembled speakersproducts. I have read that good microphones need power from an audio interface.

Since I am on a budget, I do not know exactly which audio interface is good enough to help me measure speakers well and on a budget. The only thing the audio interface has to do is help me to accurately measure soundwaves so that I can design speakers. According to this article I found, a good microphone will need phantom power, aka 12 – 48 V of power, and this amount of power is distributed by the audio interface, though the audio cables. The audio interface needs to have an input for the microphone (usually XLR), output for the speaker and USB connection for the computer. The author recommends 2 inputs and 2 outputs so you can also make 1 loop for reference. Another thing to watch out for, is the sample rate. You can measure speaker frequency response as high as half of the sample rate of your interface. So with 44.1 kHz sample rate, you can measure till 22 kHz, which should be good enough for my purpose. The 3 options I have found so far in my region are:

€75,-- (used) Focusrite Saffire 6 USB
€70,-- (used) Roland rubix 24
€59,-- (new) Behringer U-Phoria UMC202HD

I think my questions are:
1. Do I need alot of stuff on an audio interface or not i.e. do I need pre amps or should I want pre amps for future use or do all 3 models have 2 pre-amps? Does anyone know?
2. Pricewise the Behringer UMC202HD is the best way to go, but the question seems to be what am I missing out on if I do not go for the Roland or the Focusrite Interface. Which is the bestbuy interface out of the 3 options mentioned in my post. Which one would you buy in similar circumstances?

Thanks!

 

[Alcophone]

I'm not an expert on the matter, but have you considered the miniDSP UMIK-1 calibrated microphone? It's $100, but since it's a USB microphone, you don't need a separate interface, so in total it might even be cheaper or about the same price.

 

[govie]

I quote the 2-time e-course speakertechnology teacher and article author : "A microphone is worthless without an audio interface. Sometimes the microphone has an USB connection and the interface is not obligatory. Those are really cheap setups and I recommend avoiding those."
I want gear that I can keep using in the future because chances are that I will design more speakers then one and my most versatile bet right now seems to be getting a powered mic and therefore audio interface. The total price is almost about the same seeing how cheap the dayton mic is <$50,-- in regards to umik-1 which costs $35,-- more. And $35,-- almost gets me a descent budget audio interface. But I want to kill the discussion about the microphone choice right here, because it will not help me to pick the best bang4buck audio interface.

 

[Alcophone]

Got you. Good luck!